The Foreign Policy of the PLA and the Albanian Socialist State Is the Policy of Proletarian Principles

By Sofokli Lazri – Professor, specialist of international problems.

The
foreign policy of our Party and state is a consistent policy of
principles, which defends the interests of the homeland and revolution,
not only because it sticks loyally to the principles of
Marxism-Leninism, but also because it proceeds from a correct
evaluation of the world situation, from a concrete scientific analysis
of the international phenomena and practice, from a dialectical
synthesis of the present-day processes

Problems of
international relations, in general, and of the foreign policy of
various states, in particular, are attracting the attention of public
opinion throughout the world today. They have theoretical and practical
importance, for they bear directly on the life of all peoples and
nations of the world without exception, influencing both their present
and their future.

This is why, along with the struggle to guarantee and strengthen the
freedom and independence of the socialist Homeland, the struggle for
the consolidation of the victories achieved and the successful
construction of socialism, the Party of Labour of Albania has waged an
all-round struggle on many fronts to strengthen the positions of our
Republic abroad, to enhance its prestige and authority and the positive
and revolutionary role it can play in international relations and their
development in progressive directions.

The foreign policy followed by our Party and state is the policy of a
true socialist country, a policy of proletarian principles.

Lenin pointed out that the foreign policy of every country, like its
economic, cultural and military policy, has a class character, that it
is the continuation of its internal policy, an expression of those
social aims and objectives which the class in power seeks to attain.
“In 'alliance' with the imperialists, that is, in humiliating
dependence on them – such is the foreign policy of capitalists... In
alliance with the revolutionaries of the advanced countries and with
all the oppressed peoples against all imperialists of every stamp –
such is the foreign policy of the proletariat,"1 writes Lenin.

In charting its foreign policy, the Party of Labour of Albania has
consistently adhered to these immortal teachings and principles of
Leninism, and applied them in a creative manner in the concrete
conditions of our country and in conformity with present day world
developments.

“The foreign policy of the People's Republic of Albania,” says Comrade
Enver Hoxha, “is the policy of a socialist country, where the
dictatorship of the proletariat, led by the Party of Labour, is in
power, which is inspired by and remains loyal to the doctrine of Marx,
Engels, Lenin and Stalin. The foreign policy of the People's Republic
of Albania,” he continues, “defends the interests of our country in the
international arena, and together with the socialist, democratic, and
progressive countries defends and fights for freedom, progress and
genuine democracy ail over the world, for the freedom of the people who
work withhand and brain.”2

It is precisely this consistent and principled policy, which together
with the internal factors, has made it possible for the new Albania to
resist the innumerable imperialist-revisionist pressures, threats and
blackmail, which it has had to battle against, during these 34 years of
its free existence. It is this policy which has led to the foiling of
all the plots, intrigues, manoeuvres and traps prepared by its many
enemies, in their efforts to bring our country to its knees, to
subjugate it, and enslave the Albanian people. It is this policy which
has made the voice of socialist Albania listened to throughout the
world and our country honoured and respected everywhere.

The foreign policy of our Party and socialist state is principled and
consistent, it defends the interests of the Homeland and the
revolution, not only because it remains loyal to the principles of
Marxism-Leninism, but also proceeds from a correct assessment of the
situation in the world, from a concrete scientific analysis of the
phenomena of international life, from a dialectical summing-up of the
processes occurring in the world today.

Correct understanding of the contradictions of our epoch, realistic and
objective examination of the interplay of forces operating in the
international arena, and recognition of the fundamental trends of
development in the world today, are factors of decisive importance in
defining foreign policy and attitudes towards international
developments.

The analysis that Comrade Enver Hoxha has made and is constantly making
of international events provides a brilliant example of the
Marxist-Leninist assessment of extremely complicated world phenomena
and processes, and of how very valuable lessons are drawn for the
practical activity of our Party and state. On the other hand, it also
shows the method for dealing with and interpreting the present
international relations, and understanding the trends of development in
the world today.

Since its founding, socialist Albania, led by its Party of Labour, has
been a consistent and resolute opponent of imperialism and the
international bourgeoisie and all reactionary forces. It has openly and
courageously exposed and condemned the aggressive warmongering policy
of imperialist powers and their efforts to deprive the peoples of their
freedom and independence and undermine the cause of the revolution and
socialism.

At its 7th Congress, the Party of Labour of Albania stressed again that
today, as in the past, determined opposition to US imperialism and
Soviet social-imperialism is a decisive condition for safeguarding the
freedom and independence and the construction of socialism in our
country. This stand also represents the only correct, principled and
internationalist policy which serves the general cause of the
revolution and socialism, the cause of the liberation and progress of
the peoples.

The fight against US imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, the other
imperialists and world reaction, which are the cause of all the misery
of mankind, the starvation and poverty in which hundreds of millions of
people throughout the world are living, the instigators of strife and
division among nations, has ranked Albania alongside the most
progressive forces of the world, in the forefront of the revolutionary
struggle of the peoples for freedom and socialism, in the front ranks
of the resistance to the warmongering plans of imperialism and
reaction. “Socialist Albania”, says Comrade Enver Hoxha, “makes its
modest contribution to this struggle and these great efforts of
mankind, modest aid but which it gives openly, unhesitatingly, and
unafraid of any one. However”, continues Comrade Enver Hoxha, “you must
know how to seek and find the sacred cause dear to all peoples, to make
it your own and defend it with all your might. But, in order to defend
it with all your might, you must first be ready to make any sacrifice.
The People's Republic of Albania has chosen this course thanks to its
glorious leadership, the Party of Labour, and it has not swerved, and
will never swerve from this road in the face of any storm."3

Our Party has always defined its stand towards the US, Soviet and any
other imperialisms in clear and unequivocal terms: no illusions and no
concessions, but resolute and persistent struggle to defend our freedom
and independence, to defend the revolution and socialism and
Marxism-Leninism. It has considered their stand toward imperialism a
“touchstone” for all political forces, a demarcation line which divides
those who defend the vital interests of the peoples and the future of
mankind, from those who trample them underfoot, which divides
revolutionaries from traitors. The entire modern history of our
country, the consistent fight of the Albanian people, day by day,
against the aggressive course of the superpowers, our Party's exposure
of their plots, schemes, manoeuvres, and all their activities to the
detriment of the cause of the freedom and independence of the peoples,
are evidence of this stand and these class criteria. New Albania was
born at a time of great upheavals caused by the Second World War, when
a broad class battle was being waged on a national and international
scale for the consolidation and progress of the revolutionary,
liberation, democratic and anti-fascist forces. One of the fundamental
problems facing all these forces at that time was the attitude that
should be maintained towards US imperialism and its policy of
aggression.

Following the defeat of the fascist powers and the great weakening of
the old imperialists, the United States had come out with pretentions
to establish its domination over the whole world. It had taken up the
old fascist banner of anti-communism, and had rallied round itself the
whole of international reaction, which wanted not only to preserve and
consolidate the capitalist system of colonial exploitation, but also to
wipe out socialism in the Soviet Union, and re-establish the overthrown
regimes in the countries of people's democracy, to halt and suppress
the revolutionary and liberation movement which had been built up all
over the world.

In these conditions, the question was posed in a sharp and unequivocal
manner: either to oppose imperialism with all one's might, without any
concession, or fall prey to its plots and schemes. To give way before
the imperialist onslaught, to seek conciliation and compromise with it,
would mean, gradually but inevitably, to lose the freedom and
independence of your country, to betray the ideals which had been
fought for and for which so much blood had been shed.

Many anti-fascist forces, which, after the war, failed to resist the
attacks of US imperialism, its diplomatic stratagems or economic
blandishments, gave way in the face of the imperialist pressure. From
its opportunist stand towards imperialism, the leadership of the Greek
partisan movement capitulated to the fascist monarchy set up by
reaction and was smashed; it was on this fundamental issue that the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia slipped and fell into the revisionist
quagmire and put the country back in the capitalist and pro-imperialist
camp; the counter-revolutionary course which turned the communist
parties of the West into defenders of the capitalist system and
imperialist policy, began with their concessions to the Atlantic
bourgeoisie of monopoly Europe.

Likewise, it was over the questions of the stand towards US imperialism
that the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union broke their
heads, after Stalin's death. Their policy of renouncing the fight
against US imperialism, their policy of rapprochement and collaboration
with it was one of the main factors, which led to the re-establishment
of capitalism in the Soviet Union and turned it into a superpower
which, today, is contending with the United States of America for world
domination. Now we are witnesses to that regressive and reactionary
process which is taking place in China, the leaders of which have
become the most zealous and closest allies of US imperialism.

The unprincipled compromises and the many concessions that the Soviet
revisionists and all the other opportunists are making to American
imperialism are not making it any more gentle or better behaved.
American imperialism has carried on its ceaseless acts of aggression
and interference in the internal affairs of others with ever greater
intensity and ferocity. Today, the United States is sabre rattling
everywhere. Far from disarming, as Khrushchev hoped, it has stepped up
the armaments race to unimaginable proportions. The military bases of
Yankee imperialism have been extended to new countries, parallel with
the stepping up of its threats and blackmail against the peoples, its
brutal pressures and total disregard for the rights of others. Just as
before, US imperialism remains the greatest champion of reactionary
regimes everywhere and the savage enemy of the revolution and
socialism. Time is confirming with ever greater force what Comrade
Enver Hoxha said at the Moscow Conference of the 81 Communist Parties,
that "'imperialism is aggressive, it will be aggressive if even a
single tooth is left in its head”. After Stalin's death and the
revisionist counterrevolution which took place in the Soviet Union, the
genuine socialist revolutionary and liberation forces of the world were
faced with the acute problem of their stand towards the new Soviet
imperialism which emerged with pretentions to world domination. This
was a key moment which demanded loyalty to principle and courage,
ideological clarity and political wisdom.

Our Party was the first to put its finger on the great Khrushchevite
betrayal and to denounce to the world the expansionist and hegemonic
policy of the Soviet Union. Socialist Albania was the first country
which heroically resisted the vengeful assaults of the Soviet
revisionists, their vituperation and curses, their pressures and
threats, and marched forward on its course, free and independent. Those
countries which retreated before the chauvinist attack of the Soviet
revisionists, which submitted to their policy of dictate, lost their
freedom and independence, and their socialist victories. Poland and
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary, the German Democratic Republic,
and other countries, were turned into vassal states under the Soviet
imperialists' jackboot, where the Kremlin makes the law. Our Party's
forewarning that the Soviet Union would be rapidly transformed into an
imperialist state, is a major threatening reality today, which affects
and endangers the peoples of the world.

Now, the Soviet revisionists have come out openly with pretentions to
world domination. Their foreign policy is a typically colonialist and
neo-colonialist policy, which is based on the power of capital and the
force of arms. The struggle which the Soviet Union is waging today to
occupy strategic positions in the Middle East, the stationing of its
naval squadrons in the waters of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic,
Pacific and Indian Oceans, the extension of its grip on Africa and
Latin America, its pressure on Europe and its interference in the
affairs of Asia, all bear the brand of this policy. Like the US
imperialists, the Soviet revisionists are striving to extinguish the
flames of the revolution and the liberation struggles of the peoples
everywhere, to exert their control and impose their dictate everywhere,
in order to dominate the world.

These are the facts, these are the reasons, from which our Party
proceeded, when, at the 7th Congress it stressed once again that any
illusion and wavering, however slight, in the stand towards the present
Soviet Union, is fraught with catastrophic consequences for those
political forces and movements which continue to believe in Moscow's
demagogy and deception.

Our Party has waged and still wages a great struggle to expose the
political, ideological propaganda, and other efforts of the old and new
imperialists to justify aggression and perpetuate imperialist slavery.

It has shown that the so-called “new theories”, “new policies”, “new
strategies”, and all kinds of other “new” inventions which American
imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, and now Chinese revisionism,
are producing every day, are intended to break down the resistance of
the masses to the rising tide of expansion and hegemonism of the
imperialist powers, to reduce the people's opposition to the plans for
the war they are preparing.

The aim of the imperialist-revisionist tactic is to spread a psychosis
which gives the greatest possible encouragement to tendencies to
compromises and concessions. It strives to create in the masses an
attitude of passive resignation to events, an atmosphere of political
and ideological indifference towards the expansionist course and acts
of the superpowers, to cover up their aggressive plans and their
imperialist policy in general, their efforts to establish their control
and domination over the national political, economic, and military life
of all countries.

The Washington chiefs have devised their own theory on international
relations, which they call the theory of the "interdependent world".
According to this theory, a great number of intensive economic,
political, military, cultural and other ties have been established in
the world today. The international division of labour has become so
extensive that allegedly no country can live on its own. On account of
these links, they claim any kind of crisis, in any country, has
immediate repercussions everywhere, and is inevitably bound to involve
the other countries. Therefore, nobody can act according to his own
interests, and intervention, whatever its nature, even military, is not
only permissible, but even objectively necessary. With this they are
trying, among other things, to justify their current large-scale
imperialist economic aggression to plunder the developing countries of
their raw materials, to set arbitrary prices for commodities on the
international market, to establish the domination of the dollar in
world financial relations and so on.

American imperialism wants to maintain the status quo of those unfair
international relationships which enable the US monopolies to exploit
the peoples, which open the way for the political, economic, and
military expansion of the United States of America, and to perpetuate
the capitalist system and the American domination throughout the world.

In order to justify their hegemonic and expansionist policy the
social-imperialists, too, have invented the theory of their
international policy which they call the “policy of the easing of
tension”.

According to them, the key to the solution of all present-day world
problems is the so-called “easing of tension”, or “détente”. If tension
is lowered, claim the Kremlin chiefs, then the revolution can be
carried out in a peaceful way, the peoples are liberated peacefully,
the well-being of the peoples can be raised in peace, and so on. But,
when the Soviet revisionists speak of lowering tension, they have in
mind, in the first place, the relations between the United States of
America and the Soviet Union. They appeal to imperialist America to
divide the world jointly, to jointly determine the imperialist norms of
international life, to jointly exercise their dictate on all world
problems, to become the arbiters on all problems, which arise among
nations.

On the other hand, elevating to theory their counterrevolutionary
chauvinist thesis that the issue of war or peace, and the question of
the freedom and economic development of various countries depend on the
two superpowers, on the “harmony” and “equilibrium” between them, they
call on the peoples to renounce the revolution and the struggle for
national liberation, and leave their fate in the hands of US
imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism.

In a word, they want the countries and nations to relinquish their
sovereignty, to remain defenceless and unprepared in the face of
imperialist attacks, to pave the way, and remove all obstacles to
Soviet political, economic and military expansion.

Our Party has exposed these ultra-reactionary “theories” which are
intended to dig the grave for the peoples, to justify imperialist
domination and the preservation of the spheres of influence, to open
the road for neo-colonialist expansion and exploitation.

We have always combated the concept of the “concert of powers”, an
imperialist concept which the peoples cannot accept. Our Party has
always strongly emphasized that our country will never agree that
international policy should be a monopoly of the great powers. Our
people can never reconcile themselves to the efforts of the imperialist
powers to create the impression that the world cannot find stability
except under their tutelage, or that conflicts cannot be settled
without their arbitration.

The imperialist powers never settle differences and conflicts. On the
contrary, on every occasion, they add to the flames. This “harmony” of
theirs results in a dirty bargain at the expense of the freedom and
sovereignty of the peoples. “If you submit to the Soviet-American
dictate,” says Comrade Enver Hoxha, “you cannot escape its yoke. We
Albanians accept neither their dictate nor their yoke”.

Socialist Albania upholds the principle that all peoples, great or
small, must be equal in international relations, and there must be no
discrimination of any kind. It opposes any form of dictate, pressure,
control and arbitration by the great powers and their monopolization of
world affairs. It defends the view that all the peoples have the right
to have their own opinions and views on all questions and to express
them openly, though they may not be to someone's liking. It thinks that
the right to exercise complete sovereignty in all fields belongs to the
peoples and to them alone.

The People's Socialist Republic of Albania has never reconciled itself
to and has publicly denounced the war preparations of the superpowers
and their armaments race, in which the essence of the reactionary
imperialist system, its inhuman philosophy, and all its degeneration
and rottenness are clearly expressed.

This race, which recognises neither principles nor borders, and which
is draining the countries of colossal wealth, which the working people
create with their toil, has also been imposed on other countries. The
arms trade has become the biggest business for the superpowers, the
main item of their exports and their most effective means of bringing
about the political and economic dependence of the recipient countries.

In order to lull the masses to sleep and deceive them, the superpowers
have created the myth of disarmament, and with this smokescreen they
have covered the whole globe. But it is precisely the superpowers which
have so much to say about disarmament, that are competing to produce
more and more sophisticated weapons of mass extermination. Today US
imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism are conducting a deafening
propaganda campaign to pin the attention of world opinion on the SALT
talks, in order to create the fixed idea that peace and security for
all the world depend on the result of these talks, that the
Soviet-American agreements on the so-called mutual limitation of
strategic weapons mark the beginning of complete and general
disarmament.

But, as our Party has pointed out, both when the superpowers work
together and when they quarrel, it is others who pay the bill.

The agreements, treaties, mutual concessions and compromises concluded
between the United States and the Soviet Union on the basis of their
policy of expansion and hegemony, can never contribute to the
strengthening of peace and international security, either on a general
or a local scale. They do not eliminate the inter-imperialist rivalry,
which constitutes one of the chief sources of the outbreak of wars of
aggression, but on the contrary, lead to even sharper contradictions
and increased tension on all continents. They lead to greater
insecurity and create explosive situations everywhere which, at moments
of crisis, burst out irresistibly to the detriment of peoples and
nations.

At present, the American imperialists and the Soviet
social-imperialists, each under the pretext of protection from the
threat of the other, are proposing to take various countries under
their atomic umbrellas.

But it is becoming more and more clear that the military protection of
the superpowers is fictitious, because it gradually transforms the
“protected” country into a simple protectorate. Were the various
countries to entrust the Americans and the Soviets with their national
defence, they would be putting a very heavy mortgage on their freedom
and independence. This sort of “defence” is conditional on many
restrictions and concessions such as acceptance of foreign military
bases, placing the army of the "defended" country under the military
command of one of the superpowers, harnessing the country to the war
chariot of American imperialism or Soviet social-imperialism, and so
on. Each of the superpowers uses the bogey of the other to dominate its
allies, to subjugate the fearful and to enslave the peoples.

In these grave and turbulent situations, when the policy and activity
of the superpowers constitutes a serious and direct threat to the
freedom and independence of the peoples and countries of the world, the
Party of Labour and socialist Albania have maintained a correct
revolutionary stand, as befits a genuine Marxist-Leninist Party and a
genuine socialist country. They have always spoken openly of the
dangers and pointed out the truth without hesitation, or the slightest
reserve.

The Party has stressed that today, just as in the past, the danger from
the policy of imperialism and social-imperialism to our freedom and
independence, as well as to peace and the security of the peoples, is a
real and active one, therefore, the fight against the two superpowers
and their allies is an imperative duty which must be carried out by
everyone, every day, every hour, and in every field. That is why our
Party considers the waging of the struggle against imperialism and
social-imperialism through to the end and with all its might, as the
basis and permanent task of its foreign policy. It sees this fight as
an essential condition for the defence of the freedom and independence
of the Homeland and the construction of socialism, as well as a
condition and internationalist obligation for the support of the
revolution and the liberation struggle of the peoples.

The final objective of the strategy of the two superpowers is to
destroy socialism, to crush the revolution, and to establish their
domination over the whole world. In reply to this aggressive global
policy threatening the future of all the peoples, our Party firmly
upholds the thesis that real peace and security for the peoples,
freedom and socialism, can be won and defended only by fighting both
against US imperialism and against Soviet social-imperialism and any
other imperialism. It has stressed that you can never rely on one
imperialism in order to oppose another. “Our Party thinks”, says
Comrade Enver Hoxha, “that the peoples must be told openly about the
situations, because this is the only way to assist their true unity,
the unity of truly anti-imperialist and progressive states and
governments. In order to unite the peoples in the fight for freedom,
independence and social progress, against any oppression and
exploitation by whomsoever, first the demarcation lines must be laid
down, it must be made clear to them who is their chief enemy, against
whom they must fight, and with whom they must unite.”4

At its 7th Congress and in its later documents, our Party openly
criticized the imperialist theories of the Chinese leadership and its
hostile acts against the revolution, socialism, and the cause of
people's liberation.

The Party of Labour of Albania and the People's Socialist Republic of
Albania were aware that its principled criticism of the
counterrevolutionary deviation of the Chinese leadership would cause an
outburst of the chauvinist vengeance of those who are guiding the
policy of Peking today.

China's brutal, perfidious and fiendish breaking off of economic and
other relations is very clear testimony to this. But the Albanian
people and their Party remained faithful to their principles, their
correct and consistent policy and made no concessions. They remained
loyal to the line of resolute opposition and struggle against any
imperialism, any power bent on expansion and hegemony, which seeks to
undermine the cause of the revolution and the peoples and to incite
war. Marxism-Leninism has taught us, and our own experience has
confirmed, that the fight against imperialism and revisionism of every
description is our salvation, is the decisive condition to ensure the
freedom and independence of the Homeland and to carry forward the cause
of socialism.

The true revolutionaries, the peoples and all those who are fighting
for national and social liberation, for international peace and
security, can never reconcile themselves to the aims of the Chinese
leadership, which is trying to peddle its great power policy as the
strategy of the revolution and the general line of the Marxist-Leninist
movement. Exposure of the anti-Marxist theories and strategies of the
Chinese, as well as opposition to their pragmatic and chauvinist aims
is an historic duty and an absolute necessity today.

The Chinese theory of “three worlds”, on which the entire foreign
policy of China and all its international attitudes are based today, is
very much akin to, not to say almost identical with, the so-called new
geopolitical bourgeois theories, which try to explain away the great
contradictions of our time with the geographical positions of the
countries in which they arise, with the size of their population and
territory, with the level of their industrial and cultural development,
etc. These theories are intended to justify the policy of aggression
and hegemony of imperialism, a policy which, they claim, does not stem
from the predatory and exploiting nature of this system, but from
“objective conditions”, which do not depend on the system.

Their aim is to negate the class struggle and national oppression, and
as a consequence, the need for the revolution and national liberation,
to compel the workers and the peoples to resign themselves to the
situation in which they live as inevitable.

According tothe Chinese theoreticians, the contradiction between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie and the contradiction between
imperialism and socialism do not exist.

That this is a case of flagrant deviation from the analysis made by
Marx and Lenin, from Marxist dialectics, from class criteria in
analysing and appraising contradictions, is abundantly clear. But,
lurking behind the anti-Marxist formulations there is also a pragmatic
political line aimed at achieving definite counter-revolutionary
objectives.

Recognition of the existence of these contradictions naturally entails
recognition of the need for the revolution, recognition of the
necessity for the struggle against the bourgeoisie and imperialism.
When the fundamental contradiction of our epoch is “displaced” or
“altered”, the need for the “setting up of a united front” with the
bourgeoisie and US imperialism is automatically accepted. In a word,
the claims about the development and alteration of the fundamental
contradictions of our epoch are a “theoretical” justification of the
great power imperialist policy that China is following today.

When Lenin says that ours is the epoch of the collapse of imperialism,
the epoch of the proletarian revolution, he means that the fundamental
contradiction of our epoch is that between the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat, between capitalism and the triumphant proletariat –
socialism, that the proletariat and its struggle for the overthrow of
bourgeois society stand at the centre of this epoch. After making this
analysis, Lenin called on the Russian and the world proletariat to
carry out the revolution.

Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin saw and gave the correct explanation of
the interconnection between liberation wars in the colonies and the
proletarian revolution in Europe. They dwelt at length on the need for
the hegemony and leadership of the proletariat in the
national-democratic and anti-imperialist revolutions. But they never
preached that “the countryside will liberate the city”, that Poland
would liberate the Russian or German proletariat, that the Irish would
liberate England, or the Africans would liberate the workers of Europe.

At first the Chinese leaders called for unity of the “third world” in
the fight against the “first world”... Later, they preached that the
“second world” could and must become the ally of the “third world” in
the fight against the two superpowers. And, ultimately, they came out
with a new strategic platform to the effect that the “third world” and
the so-called “second world”, in which “all the industrialized
countries of the West and the East” are included, must unite, all of
them without exception, with US imperialism, and together put down
Soviet social-imperialism.

In reality, the call for unity of two and a half worlds against the
remaining half a world has nothing to do either with the genuine fight
against Soviet social-imperialism, or with the revolution and the
liberation of the peoples. It is a call for an inter-imperialist war,
it is a demand for a reshuffle of the cards to start a new round of the
imperialist game for the division of spheres of influence and world
markets in which the Chinese, too, will have its share.

But the peoples know only too well the meaning of imperialist war,
which Lenin called a crime, and they do not want to become its victims.
They are against the imperialist world conflagration, which the Chinese
are inciting, and they are fighting ceaselessly to foil the plans of
the imperialists, to prevent them from leading mankind to a new
carnage.

Moreover, the Chinese leaders endeavour to give their coalition of the
“third world” and the “second world” with US imperialism the colour of
a “revolutionary front”, in order to oppose Soviet social-imperialism.

However, the struggle against Soviet social-imperialism, both on the
ideological plane, i.e., as the centre of modern revisionism, and on
the plane of the defence of national sovereignty and independence
against the aims of its expansionist policy, cannot be waged by uniting
with the military blocs of US imperialism and, still less, by fighting
to attain the objective of these blocs, as the Chinese propagandists
advocate.

In the fight against Soviet social-imperialism, the ideal for which it
is carried out is of great importance. The imperialists fight one
another over spheres of influence and markets, each striving toextend
its plunder and exploitation to other countries. Revolutionaries are
guided in their struggle by the ideal of socialism and communism, of
the freedom and independence of the peoples, of democracy and progress,
against all imperialists without exception, against reaction of every
hue and stamp. The Chinese leaders call on the peoples to get behind
the chariot of the US imperialists, to let themselves be used as cannon
fodder.

The Chinese leaders claim that, although US imperialism is still
seeking to impose its domination on the world, it has suffered defeat
and all it can is to try to protect its interests and go over to
defence in its global strategy.

To pretend that the present “strategy of US imperialism is a defensive
strategy” is not just an erroneous analysis of the reality, not just an
ignoring and distortion of the facts. This counter-revolutionary
“thesis” has also been contrived in order to prettify imperialism and
to justify alliance and rapprochement with it. But, even worse, is that
by presenting the strategy of US imperialism as “defensive” the Chinese
revisionists are endeavouring to disarm the peoples before the
imperialist aggression, to demobilize them ideologically, politically
and morally before the expansionist and hegemonic offensive of
imperialism, to blunt their vigilance. Taken as a whole, the thesis
which alleges that US imperialism has gone over to the defensive, that
it wants only to preserve the status quo, represents the platform of
the imperialist propaganda intended to sabotage and disrupt the
liberation movement of the peoples and to justify imperialist
aggression.

The Chinese line of “uniting with everyone that can be united” is
intended to defend and support not only US imperialism but also the
other imperialisms.

The Chinese say that “the second world has a dual character”. But they
see only one aspect of this character, its possibility to unite with
the “third world”. However, the question arises: could this “world”
unite with the “first world” to fight socialism, the revolution and the
people's liberation? History tells us that this “world” fought with
arms shoulder to shoulder with US imperialism, in Korea and Vietnam, in
the Middle East it is united with Israel, and it marched to Prague
together with the Soviet tanks. To think that the so-called “second
world” will unite with the revolution and the peoples' liberation, as
the Chinese revisionists do, means to unite with the international
bourgeoisie against the revolution and socialism, against the peoples.

The false slogan that this unity is essential for the defence of
national independence cannot rescue the Chinese leadership from this
anti-Marxist, counter-revolutionary position. “Defence of the Homeland”
is a great slogan with which the bourgeoisie and opportunists have been
speculating for centuries with a view to using and exploiting the
masses for their own ends. But in the concrete case, if it is a
question of the defence of national independence, as the Chinese claim,
why is defence against US imperialism not mentioned? For more than
thirty years now, the proletariat and the working masses of Europe have
been fighting against NATO and American bases in Europe, against
interference and control by American capital, against the harnessing of
their countries to the chariot of American imperialism. Now they are
being told to cease this fight, to submit to American imperialism, to
unite with it, to sacrifice themselves for foreign interests!

The call for the setting up of a united front of the “third world” with
the “second world”, according to the Chinese leaders, is a call for
liberation, for opposition to the interference of the superpowers, and
so on and so forth. But even on this issue, it must be stressed that
the Chinese leadership is not calling for the unity of the peoples, but
of governments and the bourgeois ruling circles of these countries, and
more precisely, for unity of the European monopolies and the big
bourgeoisie with the neo-colonialist bourgeoisie of the “third world”.
Meanwhile, in the scheme of this “Front”, the peoples and the
proletariat remain a passive element, an obedient mass, and they must
submit to their bourgeoisie and follow it in the inter-imperialist war,
which China is inciting and trying to bring nearer. This “mass” is to
keep quiet, must neither think nor speak of revolution, of liberation
from neo-colonialism, of closing down foreign military bases, or
establishing national sovereignty in all fields. China does not want
the peoples to make any move in these directions, for if they were to
do so, they would run up against NATO, the Common Market, the
multinational companies of Western Europe, would come up against the
opposition of those “who want to defend only what they have”, in a
word, they would come up against all the pillars of the imperialist
system, which like a great monster is sucking the blood of the peoples,
not only of the “third world”, but also of the “second world”.

Such terms and notions as the “international bourgeoisie”, “reaction”,
“fascism” no longer figure in the political vocabulary of the Chinese
leadership. Is this merely a lapse of memory? Not at all! If you
mention the international bourgeoisie you must necessarily say where it
is, what it stands for, and moreover, what must be done about it. But
can they speak ill of this bourgeoisie when they are proposing the
“second world”, with its capitalists and fascists, militarists and
monopolists, to the proletariat and peoples as allies, when they
consider this “world” one the pillars of the “broad united
anti-imperialist front”?

The same may be said about reaction and fascism. Are there reactionary
forces, oppressive, exploiting, fascist, anti-communist, and
anti-popular governments in our world?

No one has any doubts about this. Even Carter, who poses as wanting to
make the bourgeois world “moral”, tries to keep his distance from a
number of governments discredited as openly fascist or employing open
reactionary methods. But why are the Chinese leaders silent about this?
They are silent because the fascist juntas and the reactionary
governments, the kings and the shahs are all lumped together in that
world which China calls “the motive force of history”, because they are
participants in the Chinese leaders’ “united front”. When Iran is
seething with the people's revolt against the mediaeval regime of the
Shah, Hua Kuo-feng goes to Tehran and kisses the Shahinshah. Now Peking
has become the Mecca of kings and fascist dictators, of generals of the
former Wehrmacht and the Japanese Imperial Army, of warmongers and
reactionaries from all countries.

The present-day reality, the class struggle which is being waged on a
world scale, daily international events are more and more revealing the
opposition of the Chinese leadership to Marxism-Leninism and their
expansionist aims. As time goes by, these features of the Chinese
leadership will become more and more obvious, hence they will be
exposed even more badly. The Chinese leadership has cut off its aid to
socialist Albania in a brutal and arrogant manner. This act, which
public opinion throughout the world condemned, was clear testimony to
the chauvinist superpower policy China is now pursuing. It was a
deliberate action to attack Albania, to attack what it stands for and
symbolizes, its struggle for the defence of Marxism-Leninism and the
construction of a genuine socialist society, to attack the progress and
the strengthening of the international Marxist-Leninist movement and
proletarian internationalism. At the same time the Chinese leaders
incited the Cambodian-Vietnamese conflict, and are exerting
unprecedented pressure and blackmail on Vietnam, interfering seriously
in its internal affairs. The peoples of the world cannot fail to see
that these events on Chinas borders reflect China's strivings for
imperialist expansion towards the south, and cannot fail to see its
pretensions to present itself as a new superpower seeking spheres of
influence and hegemony.

With these acts and many others of this kind, China has now lined
itself up with American imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism and,
in practice, has come into conflict with the peoples, the
revolutionaries, the patriots and the honest people in the world.

The Albanian people have not been and never will be alone in the
struggle against imperialism, social-imperialism, all other
imperialists and reaction. Today, many other revolutionary and
liberation forces which are colliding with their aggressive policies
and actions are fighting them, too. Therefore, the Peoples Socialist
Republic of Albania attaches importance not only to its own struggle,
but also to the revolutionary and liberation struggle of all peoples,
which it supports and links itself with. The support of the
revolutionary and progressive public opinion of the world for the
correct struggle and stands of our Party and state in their foreign
policy is an objective reality. It is a great source of inspiration and
another assurance of the triumph of our just struggle.

At the same time, the history of new Albania is vivid testimony to the
efforts which our Party and our country have made to support and assist
the cause of socialism and the freedom of the peoples of the world with
all the strength at their disposal, regardless of the attacks of the
enemies and the sacrifices involved. It is enough to mention the
struggle against modern revisionism, the greatest enemy of the
communist movement, the most diabolical saboteur and underminer of the
efforts of the peoples for their freedom and independence. The Albanian
communists and people, in the extremely severe conductions of the years
1948, 1960 and 1976, were among the first to rise to expose Yugoslav,
Khrushchevite and Chinese revisionism in turn, and to give
unhesitatingly and courageous support to the genuine Marxist-Leninist
revolutionary forces, all those who genuinely wanted to fight for the
cause of socialism and communism.

It is this consistent principled and resolute struggle, this lofty
internationalist stand, this unshaken confidence that socialist Albania
will march on this road, that draws the Marxist-Leninists, the
revolutionaries, the patriots and progressive people of different
countries close to our Party and country, and encourages and inspires
them to fight to the end for their just cause.

Our Party and people have been and are conscious that their fight
against imperialism and revisionism, their open and unreserved support
for the struggle of the proletariat and the peoples, inevitably brings
down upon them the wrath and vengeance of the enemies, their pressures
and blockades, blackmail and threats. But no force, no reason can turn
our Party and people from the honourable course on which they have
always marched, nothing can induce them to renounce their
internationalist stand. To act otherwise would be a catastrophe. Stalin
explains this question very well when he says, “This is the
alternative: either we continue henceforth to implement our
revolutionary policy, rallying the proletarians and the oppressed of
all countries around the working class of the USSR – and then
international capital will hinder our progress in every way; or we give
up our revolutionary policy, and make a series of concessions on
principles to international capital – and then perhaps international
capital will not be against 'helping' us, to bring about the
degeneration of our socialist country into a 'docile bourgeois'
republic”. And he adds: “America demands that we renounce in principle
our policy of support for the liberation movement of the working class
of the other countries, and then everything would go smoothly if we
were to make such a concession... or others of this type, without
negating ourselves.”5

This great proletarian principles and this outstanding Leninist stand
were brutally trampled underfoot and abandoned by Khrushchev and his
followers. Their reconciliation with imperialism, with big
international capital, their opportunism in their relations with the
pro-imperialist cliques of the new countries of Asia, Africa and other
continents, turned them into enemies of the revolution and the
liberation of the peoples.

The same thing is happening now with the Chinese leaders. In order to
secure aid and credits from the USA and from the big capital of the
world, they went over to the side of imperialism, neo-colonialism, and
together with them are fighting against the peoples, the revolution and
socialism. With their policy of rapprochement and collusion with
imperialism and colonialism, they have negated the Chinese revolution
itself, and are assailing the international solidarity of the workers
and peoples of the world.

The Party of Labour and socialist Albania have stood loyal to the
Leninist teachings of proletarian internationalism and the great
revolutionary traditions of the proletariat.

They have always made a high assessment of the revolutionary struggle
of the international working class against the bourgeoisie and
revisionism, the struggle which the oppressed peoples are waging for
freedom and independence, against imperialism, social-imperialism and
reaction, as a struggle which strengthens our freedom and independence,
too. “Just as the Marxist-Leninist parties and the progressive peoples
everywhere in the world have helped us in the past, in our struggle for
national liberation and the establishment of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, we, too, are duty bound to help the proletariat, the
Marxist-Leninist Parties and all the progressive forces in the struggle
they are waging, so that their peoples, too, will achieve their freedom
and socialism”.6

Socialist Albania has always wished the peoples of all countries well,
including those who live under a different social system, but not their
oppressors and exploiters, with whom it has always been and will be
irreconcilable. “The progressive peoples and democratic states that are
fighting to establish their national sovereignty over their assets, who
are fighting for their political and economic independence, for
equality and justice in internal relations, enjoy the full solidarity
and support of the Albanian people and state”,7 Comrade Enver Hoxha has
declared. With regard to the states which do not maintain a hostile
stand towards our country, Albania has always been and is for building
normal relations on the basis of equality and respect for sovereignty,
mutual benefit and non-interference in internal affairs.

But while struggling for good understanding, for the establishing of
good neighbour relations and the preservation of genuine peaceful
co-existence with other countries, our Party, at the same time, adheres
to the principle that state relations, at whatever level, cannot be
made the excuse for ceasing the ideological struggle and reciprocal
polemics. The ideological struggle pervades the entire foreign policy
of our socialist state. Nineteen years ago, in an article about this
problem, Comrade Enver Hoxha wrote: “The Yugoslav leaders and their
organs of propaganda deliberately confuse two entirely different and
opposite things: the question of the peaceful coexistence of countries
with different socio-economic systems, and the struggle against
revisionism. And they ask: How can the one be reconciled with the
other? Thus the revisionists arc people who confuse even the clearest
and simplest things. Peaceful coexistence of socialism with capitalism
does not imply ideological reconciliation between them. And,
consequently, the improvement of the international situation does not,
in any way, infer 'reconciliation' with revisionism. On the contrary,
peaceful coexistence in the ideological field is the recognized
platform of lackeys of the imperialist bourgeoisie, of opportunists and
revisionists”.8

The implementation of this principle has great significance because,
for a socialist country, preservation of its ideological independence,
preservation of the right to fight in the international arena, too,
against all idealist, anti-Marxist and reactionary ideologies and
practices, against all those trends and organisms which impede the
progress of the world towards socialism and communism is just as
important as the preservation of its state independence. Our Party has
always upheld this stand, and did so again at its 7th Congress, the
report to which reads: “Our socialist state does not interfere in the
internal affairs of any country with which it has various political,
economic and cultural relations. But this does not mean that, for the
sake of these relations, or of good neighbourliness with the bordering
states, or the policy of non-interference in internal affairs, the
Albanian state should not express its opinions on international policy
in general, as well as on the ideological and political stands of these
states, just as they, too, have the right to express their opinions on
the ideological and political stands of the Albanian state”.9

The policy of our socialist state is an independent policy which
expresses the sovereign will and judgement of our people, because it
has been formed independently of any foreign dictate and is not
influenced by temporary international circumstances.

It is possible to maintain and implement this independence because,
apart from its sound ideological basis, our country has all the other
essential objective and subjective conditions needed for such a thing.
In the first place, our country is economically independent, it does
not depend on foreign powers for anything, it does not accept credits,
has no debts, has no joint companies, and so on, which transform
political independence into a meaningless formula and determine both
the internal and foreign policies.

Therefore, the refusal of our country to accept credits, aid, etc. from
the imperialist and capitalist countries, its non-participation in
international organizations which restrict national sovereignty or
condition freedom and the free exercise of the people's will,
principles which have been sanctioned in the Constitution, constitute a
guarantee that Albania will always pursue an independent policy, and
create the practical conditions which make it possible to really
implement this policy.

The bourgeois and revisionist propaganda has long been screaming that
Albania is an isolated country because it does not have diplomatic
relations with this or that state, because it does not trade with this
or that country, etc. They do this with evil intent, and also because
they proceed from the old bourgeois concepts that inter-state relations
imply only treaties, military alliances, enslaving agreements, the
activities of multinational companies, and the importing of the
degenerate bourgeois way of life.

This concept which has found favourable soil in the day-to-day practice
of the capitalist states, is an expression of the policy of the great
imperialist powers which seeks to break down all barriers and extend
the political, economic, military and cultural domination of
imperialism over all continents and states. It represents an instrument
for interference in internal affairs and to justify national and
colonial oppression.

Marxism-Leninism and the practice of the socialist construction of our
country have exposed and refuted this reactionary concept. They have
proved that the independent economic development, national defence, the
raising of the cultural level of any country, regardless of the size of
its territory and population, can be achieved and carried forward on
the basis of self-reliance while maintaining complete independence in
all fields.

When the Party of Labour and the Albanian people expose and fight the
economic and military integration of imperialism, when they reject the
enslaving system of capitalist credits and aids, they are not seeking
the isolation of the country and its autarky. They reject the old
bourgeois mentality according to which no state can walk on its own
feet, but not the development of normal trade relations based on mutual
interest, useful cultural exchanges, etc.

The long practice of the international relations of our state in these
fields thoroughly vindicates the correct and principled stand it has
maintained. Socialist Albania, today, has diplomatic relations with 82
states and commercial exchanges with scores of countries. Albanian
books, films and music have crossed the borders of many states, just as
the progressive cultural values of the other peoples come into Albania.
Albania is a country closed to enemies and reactionaries, but it is
open and hospitable to those who wish it well, who fight, together with
it, against imperialism and reaction, for national freedom and the
progress of mankind.

The concepts of the relations and isolation are, thus, two completely
different notions to the bourgeoisie and the communist. Therefore we
are not isolated, but the imperialists and the bourgeoisie are isolated
from their own peoples.

With evil intent and in order to sow doubts about the Albanian
proletarian state, continuously, but more especially at given moments,
the various enemies insinuate that Albania will side with this or that
imperialist power. But, as our Party has declared, the whole world
ought to know that Socialist Albania has never held out its hand to any
imperialist power and will never do so, and that the borders of Albania
are inviolable. The Albanian people, who are well acquainted with their
enemies and the enemies of the peoples, and who are well aware of where
the dangers come from, will fight resolutely and unwaveringly in
defence of their freedom, independence and sovereignty, as they have
always done. They look to the future with confidence, because they have
confidence in their own strength and enjoy the support, assistance and
solidarity of international progressive public opinion, and numerous
friends and well-wishers all over the world.

The theoretical foundations, the objectives and direction, the strategy
and tactics of our foreign policy generally have been worked out by the
Party of Labour of Albania over a long period of struggle and efforts
to defend the freedom and independence of our Homeland, to defend the
victories of our people's revolution, the cause of socialism in Albania
and in the world.

They have been defined at the Congresses of the Party, in the plenums
of the Central Committee and in a number of documents of the Party. But
the major contribution and the great work of Comrade Enver Hoxha is at
the source of our foreign policy, its development and consolidation,
and the formation of its features and style.

The consistent, correct and principled policy pursued by new Albania in
the difficult and complicated international circumstances, which
characterize the period after the Second World War, its accurate
directions and resolute stands are closely linked with the name of
Comrade Enver Hoxha.

The profound dialectical analysis which Comrade Enver Hoxha makes of
international phenomena and events, the scientific conclusions and
convincing arguments he uses, the wise and flexible tactics he adopts
to cope with the fiendish attacks of the enemies, the correct course he
chooses to realize the aims and objectives of the foreign policy of our
Party and state, all bear the stamp of his Marxist-Leninist
personality.

The struggle waged by the Party of Labour and the people of Albania
with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head against imperialism and reaction,
and in particular, the struggle for the ideological and political
exposure of Yugoslav, Soviet and Chinese revisionism will remain as one
of the most outstanding acts of revolutionary courage, political
bravery and clarity about the future.

Today the Party of Labour and socialist Albania enjoy great prestige,
respect and sympathy among the revolutionaries and the progressive
people of the world. And this is not for sentimental reasons, or for
some special preference. The place which Socialist Albania occupies in
the world, its prestige and authority are due, in the first place, to
the successes it has achieved in the liberation of the country from the
foreigners and in the successful construction of the new socialist
society, to its long and resolute struggle against imperialism and
revisionism, and the correct policy and the clear revolutionary stands
it maintains on all important international key issues.

As a result of the expansionist and hegemonic policy of the United
States of America, the Soviet Union, and now China, too, towards the
small countries, even when they are not included in blocs and spheres
of influence, continuous attempts are being made to impose various
forms of dependence on them. Albania has resolutely fought and
fearlessly exposed these policies.

Bravely standing up to the many storms which have been crashing around
it, Albania has shown everybody that even in the present-day world,
fraught with so many dangers, with so many unexpected and unknown
elements, the freedom and independence of the Homeland, socialism, the
revolutionary principles and ideology can be defended with success when
the people are determined to fight to the end, when they are led by a
genuine Marxist-Leninist Party and are convinced that they can triumph
over the enemies.

1 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 25, p. 86 (Alb. ed.).

2 Enver Hoxha, “Our policy is an open policy, it is the policy of proletarian principles”, Tirana 1974, p. 20, 30 (Alb. ed.).